TABŪK (تبوك). A valley in Arabia, celebrated as the scene of one of Muḥammad’s military expeditions, and as the place where he made a treaty with John the Christian prince of Ailah. [[TREATY].]
TĀBŪT (تابوت). (1) The Ark of the Covenant, mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 249]: “Verily the sign of his (Saul’s) kingship shall be that the Ark (Tābūt) shall come to you: and in it Sakīnah from your Lord, and the relics left by Moses and Aaron; the angels shall bear it.”
Tābūt is the Hebrew תֵּבָה Tēbāh used for Noah’s Ark, and the Ark of bulrushes, [Ex. ii. 3], and not אָרוֹן Ārōn, the word in the Bible for the Ark of the Covenant.
The commentator, al-Baiẓāwī, says the Sakīnah was either the Taurāt, or Books of Moses, or an idol of emeralds or rubies, the head and tail of which was like that of a goat, and the wings of feathers, and which uttered a feeble cry; and when the ark was sent after an enemy, then this was sent. But some say it was a representation of the prophets.
Al-Jalālān say the relics left in the Ark were the fragments of the two tables of the Law, and the rod and robes and shoes of Moses, the mitre of Aaron, and the vase of manna. [[ARK OF THE COVENANT], [SAKINAH].]
(2) A coffin or bier for the burial of the dead.
(3) The representation of the funeral of al-Ḥusain. [[MUHARRAM].]
(4) The box or ark in which the body of the child Moses was placed by his mother for fear of Pharaoh. See Qurʾān, [Sūrah xx. 39]: “When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken: ‘Cast him into the ark: then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall take him up.’ And I myself have made thee an object of love, That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.”
TADBĪR (تدبير). Post obit manumission of slaves. In its primitive sense it means looking forward to the event of a business. In the language of the law, it means a declaration of a freedom to be established after the master’s death. As when the master says to his slave, “Thou art free after my death.” The slave so freed is called a mudabbir. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 475.) [[SLAVERY].]
TAFAKKUR (تفكر). Lit. “Contemplation or thought.” According to the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, it is the lamp of the heart whereby a man sees his own evils or virtues.